Kale Chips

I didn't think that these would be good, but since Kyle and I have been on the 17 Day Diet, I've been dying for a salty snack, so I made some Kale chips.  They are to die for!

How to Make:
Take a bundle of curly kale, and remove the leaves from the stems.  Rinse in water, and dry well.  They HAVE to be dry, or they wont cook right.  I layed mine out on a cutting board lined with paper towels, pressed them dry with more paper towels, and let them sit awhile.  Then, put the leaves in a large bowl.  Add 1-2 Tbsp of e.v.o. and as much sea salt as you want.  You wont need too much though for them to taste like salty chips!  Use your hands, and mix the leaves around in the mixture until evenly coated.  Lay them evenly out on a baking sheet (use more than one rather than crowding your pan.  Too much crowding will leave some chips wilty instead of crunchy.)  Pop in the oven (pre-heated to 350) for about 15 minutes.  They will shrink up quite a bit while they cook.  You can eat them immediately, and they are sooo good!  Even Jaidyn ate them!  A healthy chip!....who knew??

What's for Lunch?

Yesterday for lunch, we had pasta caprese, greek salad, and fresh strawberries and banana's (my favorite fruit combo!).  The greek salad is simple, and something I like to eat several times a week for lunch.  It's very yummy!  It's just romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cucumber, artichoke hearts, black olives, pepperoncini's, oregano, feta cheese, and a delicious homemade dressing.

What to make the dressing:
1/8 cup lime juice
1/8 cup evo
1 tbsp honey

Mix together, and pour some over the salad.

Now, here is how to make the pasta caprese.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of evo (or less if you want, because that's a lot!)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 contained of cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 bag of thinnly shredded mozzarella cheese
1 box of penne pasta

Cook pasta.  Meanwhile, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  Add tomatoes and mozzarella, toss until well coated, and let marinate for 20-25 minutes.  Add mixture to cooked pasta, toss, and serve warm.

Pizza Pizza Pizza!!!

I wont be posting a recipe for this, because it's simply a Chef Boyardee homemade pizza, but it looked (and tasted!) so delicious that I had to post a pic!  My mom used to make these pizza's with my brothers and I all the time when we were younger, and I love making them with Jaidyn now!  It's such a great thing to cook with your kids, because they can help spread out the dough and put on the toppings!  Sooo yummy!

Healthy(ish) Lemon Bars

I loooove lemon bars, but have never made them before, so I thought that I would give them a shot tonight.  I must say, these were not fun to make, and the whole time I was making them I kept saying to myself, "these are going to be horrible!', but to my surprise they were pretty good!  Jaidyn loved them!  I always have to add that part about Jaidyn loving them, because she is such a picky eater!  So when I can find something that she likes it excites me!


What you need:


Nonstick cooking spray
3/4 cup all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
2/3 cup granulated sugar plus 3 tablespoons
1/2 stick cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 egg
1 egg white
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (I didn't actually measure this out, I just used the zest from one lemon)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
powdered sugar

How to make it:


Coat an 8 x 8 pan with cooking spray, and preheat oven to 350.  Mix 3/4 cup flour and 3 tablespoons of sugar, then mix in the butter.  Now this part was tricky.  I used my fingers to mix the butter in with the flour and sugar, until the mixture became crumbly.  Next, pat the mixture onto the bottom of the greased pan.  Again, this was tricky.  The mixture stuck to my fingers really badly, so I had to sprinkle more flour into the mixture when I was having trouble getting it off of my fingers and onto the pan.  Once complete, bake for 15 minutes.  In the same bowl, combine egg and egg white.  Beat on medium speed until frothy.  Add 2/3 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, lemon zest and juice, water, and baking powder.  Beat on medium for 2 minutes until slightly thickened (it doesn't get very thick at all).  Pour over baked layer in the pan, and bake for am additional 20 minutes.  Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, refrigerate, and serve! 

I don't know why the bars on the bottom look red, but the aren't!  When I edited the picture it did that for some reason!

Easy Peasy Caprese

This is what I had for dinner tonight.  Cut up a couple of roma's, added some mozzarella pearls and basil leaves, and drizzled with evo and balsamic vinegar.  Easy but quite good!

Cinnamon and Sugar Pretzel Bites with Vanilla Dipping Sauce

I decided to try a cinnamon and sugar version of the pretzel bites, and they were yummy!  They taste a little bit like donut holes.  The recipe is the same, just use a mixture of cinnamon and sugar instead of the salt, garlic, and parmesan mixture.  Below is a recipe for the delicious vanilla dipping sauce.

Vanilla Dipping Sauce

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of milk (I used almond milk since I don't drink regular milk, and it gave it an interesting flavor)
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix all together, and dip pretzel bites in the sauce!

Garlic and Parmesan Pretzel Bites with Cheddar Cheese Dip

I have recently discovered that I enjoy cooking, and I'm not too bad at it either.  So, I thought, why not make a blog where I can post my recipes?  So, here it is.  The first recipe I am posting is for homemade garlic and parmesan pretzel bites and cheddar cheese dip.  These were gone in a flash once Kyle got ahold of them, and Jaidyn liked them too!

Pretzel Ingredients:

Texas Style Rhodes frozen rolls, each roll makes 4 bites
Kosher, coarse salt
Garlic salt
Paremsan cheese
Bowl of melted butter

Preheat over to 375. There aren't really any measurements for this recipe, it all depends on how many bites you want to make.  Take two small bowls.  In one combined the salt and a little bit of garlic salt.  I added way too much, so be careful with the garlic!  In a second bowl, add parmesan.  Take as many unthawed rolls as you'd like, and cut in half, then in half again so that you have four equal pieces from each roll.  Roll each piece into balls.  Place on a greased baking sheet, then cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Allow bites to rise for about 40-45 minutes.  While dough is rising, boil a pot of water.  After the dough has risen, plop a few pieces of dough in the water at a time, and stir for about 45 seconds.  Remove with a slotted spoon, and place on paper towels to allow water to drain off.  Place bites on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.  Once baked, brush each bite with butter, sprinkle the salt/garlic mixture on, and roll in parmesan cheese.

Cheese Dip Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add flour and stir until mixture turns light golden brown.  Whisk in milk and cook until thickened slightly.  Remove from heat, and stir in cheddar cheese until melted.

I promise these are so delicious that my husband told me I should sell them!